hand knit designs and hand dyed yarns for adults, children and the home

Month: April 2016

. . . step back every now and then. . . . knit. . . . ask for help. . . . then knuckle down and get it done.

There’s a lesson in there somewhere for me over the past few weeks. Lemmie ‘splain. I knit for a living, so I have been working the needles pretty much every single day since I was about 18. In my little world, there is pleasure knitting, there is knitting for customers, there is pattern design knitting, there is knitting my designs, and there is knitting from other designers’ patterns. Each has it’s pros and cons, which the latter landed me into a bit of a sticky wicket. There is a lovely pattern for a child’s hoodie, which I found on Ravelry, and have made before, right? Well, I needed to work up another, and approached the project with a pro’s mind, thinking “I don’t need to read through the pattern like I did the first time. I know this stuff, I did it before.” Well. . . pro that I am, I didn’t read it through (big mistake, since the pattern’s designer’s writing style is not like mine, so I assumed things I should not have). So, I got mad at the project and had to step back from it for a couple of weeks. I had to. It sat there on the top of my Next Project Pile, looking at me all sad and forlorn. I could see it trying to guilt me as I worked on some other things (see the photos below).

So as you can see, I did a whole lot if ignoring – there were hats to make, socks to finish, and plenty of yarn to dye. Anyway, I finally let the little-pink-hoodie-guilt get to me, and picked up the project, AFTER re-reading the pattern fully, and that’s where it got cu-ray-zee! I had to rip out one particular section about 4 times (WHICH NEVER HAPPENS TO ME), thus teaching me a great lesson in knitter’s humility. I actually had to throw up a lifeline, and ask for some help, in the form of my favorite knitter’s 911 resource, Vicky Square’s “The Knitter’s Companion.” Well, long story short (too late), I finally cracked the knitter’s whip and got that thing done. I can tell you that I am happy to send it along to it’s intended, vowing to either 1) never knit the hoodie again, or, more likely, 2) knit it again, but read the stinkin’ pattern first!

If you would like to try your hand at Lisa K. Black’s Twisted Trails, click here to purchase the pattern on Ravelry. In the meantime, here’s the first one I made, and the problem child that followed:

If you would like to take a peek at my hand dyed yarns (no pattern reading involved), click here to visit my shop.